Outdoors: These arrows are right on mark in leading hunters to fallen prey

I owe much of my bow-hunting success this past season to my son, dry fallen leaves, and some very special arrows.

My son helped me set up perfect tree stands and drag out heavy deer. Crisp, noisy leaves alerted me to approaching deer long before I could see them, and my favorite arrows greatly helped me recover deer in the dark.

You can’t buy a great son or a carpet of dry leaves, but you can wrap up a dozen lighted-nock arrows for your special bow hunter.

Rhythmically crunching crisp, fallen oak leaves, a heavy buck passed my stand shortly before last light one evening during last November’s rut. Stopping it with a guttural grunt, I shot as it stood broadside, 15 yards away. The deer didn’t even flinch, though I felt certain I had made a good shot.

When an arrow flies more than 300 feet per second, sometimes it’s difficult to assess your hit in low light. The buck moved off slowly, without reaction, as if I had missed. For a disconcerting moment, I began to question whether I indeed had hit it after all.

Waiting doubtfully in my tree stand for a nerve-wracking 45 minutes, just as it got dark, I finally noticed out of the corner of my eye the tiny, lighted nock of my arrow sticking out of the ground about 20 yards away. Whether the deer was hit or not would be quickly verified after checking for the presence or absence of blood on the arrow’s vanes.

Descending uncertainly, I found, much to my relief, its yellow-and-white fletching and shaft totally stained dark red. I had indeed hit it well. Following the blood trail in the dark with a good light, an essential tool for all bow hunters, I soon came upon the big buck, which had gone down quickly 70 yards from my stand. Dressing it out on site, I saw that it was hit lethally in the liver, about two inches from the heart.

Had it been hit in the heart or lungs, it would have exhibited an obvious reaction to the shot — generally a body contraction and a quick leap. The blood on the arrow would have been a brighter red. What made finding both my arrow and the deer so quickly and easily was the invaluable arrow my son and I now always use. Its lighted nock verified the success of the shot, got me started right away on a blood trail that I might not otherwise have readily found, and saved me the cost of a potentially lost arrow and broadhead, in this case more than $20. This is one high-tech product that’s clearly worth its cost; it greatly lessens the possibility of losing a deer.

Lighted nocks deservedly have earned numerous local fans. Their tiny batteries have ultra-bright LEDs with a shelf life up to three years. Our fastest shooting bows, though, can diminish considerably that optimum longevity. Fortunately, the batteries can be replaced easily.

Nocks are available in both red and green. Eric Price, co-founder and vice president of the Burt Coyote Co., which makes the Lumenok arrow, told me the brighter green LEDs, which I prefer, use energy faster than red ones, so they dim more quickly. This is one of the most helpful gifts that Santa can add to an archer’s quiver.

Because I am constantly at risk from attacking flies, chiggers, ticks and mosquitoes both here and in the tropics, I’m perennially looking for reliable protection. I’ve lately been relying on the permethrin-impregnated clothing manufactured by Insect Shield in Greensboro, N.C. Embedded in the cloth fibers is a neurotoxic synthetic insecticide that is harmless to humans.

Entirely odorless, it’s a highly effective for deer hunting — especially during the early September mosquito season in Connecticut. Its protection lasts through about 70 washings. Insect Shield clothing’s greatest local benefit here may be its potential for reducing Lyme disease.

One of the least expensive Christmas gifts I received last year turned out to be a great help hunting — a case of 50-pack white trail tacks for marking my way to my tree stands in the dark. HME Products makes the best I’ve seen.

SOG makes some of the toughest, sharpest and most affordable specialty knives in the world. Their reputation is well deserved. Each year, I treat myself to trying at least one of SOG’s new knives for field-dressing deer. Its fixed-blade Aura Hunting knife has good ergodynamics, and its gut hook was sharp out of the package.

Deer hunters need a good light to follow blood trails after dark. ICON’s Modus 2 flashlight has a long-lasting LED, operated inexpensively by two AA batteries. Durable, waterproof and having two brightness levels, it lacks only a red filter light that would minimize advertising one’s presence.

One of the most appreciated gifts I annually bring down to the Amazon’s Quichua Indian guides has been a green laser pointer made by the H.E. Long Co. Though intended for interior use, it’s perfect for pointing out birds and other difficult-to-see outdoor wildlife, even in the rainforest canopy.

An Indian with limited foreign language skills invariably finds it challenging to communicate to a birder that “the toucan is in the tallest cecropia tree, 3 feet in at 2 o’clock” — especially when his client could be from any country in the world and likely doesn’t know a cecropia from a kapok. But even a colorblind, myopic observer can spot the laser light directed at the feet of a bird.

We’ve found that the green laser surprisingly shows up on green vegetation far better than the red laser. If you guide people on bird walks or other nature expeditions here or abroad, these lasers can prove invaluable.

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